Des Moines University to train family doctors on mental health care

Susan Huppert of Des Moines University and Peggy Huppert of NAMI Iowa share more than a last name: They both have a passion for improving mental health care in Iowa.

The two Hupperts look like they could be sisters, but they aren't related by blood. Susan Huppert's husband, Michael Huppert, is Peggy Huppert's ex-husband.

The two women decided years ago, for the sake of Peggy’s and Michael’s children, to skip the drama and try to cooperate as friends. That collaboration has moved from the family into professional partnership between the university and the national mental health association.

Now, Des Moines University is on the brink of becoming the first medical school in the country to provide National Alliance on Mental Illness-developed training in mental health care to all students.

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Susan Huppert, left, of Des Moines University and Peggy Huppert of NAMI Iowa share a name and a passion to improve mental health care in Iowa.(Photo: Kathie Obradovich/The Register)

"Ta da! The timing is right,” Susan Huppert, chief external and governmental affairs officer for DMU, said in an interview.

The Hupperts have been talking about mental health care for years, but weren’t sure what could be done. Then, in 2011, Des Moines University hired Dr. Angela Franklin, a clinical psychologist, as its president. The next year, DMU hired psychologist Dr. Lisa Streyffler to chair its Behavioral Medicine department. She brought in Dr. Jeritt Tucker, a psychologist who has worked in community counseling in Iowa and with the Polk County juvenile court.

“It’s all about leadership. It’s like the planets are aligning,” Susan Huppert said.

Last year, Peggy Huppert was hired as executive director of NAMI Iowa, bringing years of experience as a volunteer, advocate and family member of a person with mental illness. She raised the need for more mental-health training for medical students through her organization, up to the national leadership. As it turned out, national NAMI executives had been looking for a medical school to work with on physician training.

“We’re never going to have enough psychiatrists in the world, ever, to keep people well,” Peggy Huppert said. “Two-thirds of all psychiatric meds are prescribed by family docs.”

Family doctors would not be expected to manage the patients with diagnoses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. But that’s only 1 or 2 percent of the population, Peggy Huppert said. “If we can reserve the most seriously ill for the psychiatrists, that would be awesome,” she said.

Franklin, the university president, became more familiar with the gaps in Iowa’s mental health care system while working with a task force on Iowa’s Community Health Needs Assessment in 2014-15.

“It’s kind of heart-breaking to see how much more needs to be done and very little effort yet,” Franklin said in an interview. “And so we’re trying to do our part.”

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“It’s kind of heart-breaking to see how much more needs to be done and very little effort yet,” Des Moines University President Angela Franklin said. “And so we’re trying to do our part.”(Photo: BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER)

Many rural areas, including in Iowa, have a shortage of mental health providers, so the burden for treating mental illness falls on primary-care physicians by default. Des Moines University, Franklin pointed out, graduates more primary-care physicians than any other medical school in the country. Most physicians come out of medical school with very little instruction on dealing with mental health, she said.

“Our part could be making sure … we have an imprint on our students so they have an appreciation for how to recognize, diagnose and maybe even treat mental illnesses,” Franklin said.

Des Moines University is planning to require a short, intensive course in mental health care for all of its third-year students. The three-day, 15-hour course would take place after students’ first series of clinical rotations. The curriculum has been developed and would be presented by NAMI and local providers and volunteers.

National officials for NAMI will be in Des Moines in mid-November to work out details of the program. The university will need to raise money for the program and it will look to donors and grants. It also plans to seek some public money at the state and federal level, Susan Huppert said.

The ground-breaking proposal is DMU’s first step toward incorporating mental-health care into the university curriculum, Franklin said. “So this is a beginning. This is giving all students an opportunity to learn a little bit more about mental illness and issues around the care of mentally ill patients,” she said.

The proposal comes as Iowa’s shortage of certain mental-health services is gaining more public attention. The heart-breaking obituary of 18-year-old Sergei Neubauer of Clive, written by his mother after his suicide in September, went viral on social media. The Des Moines Register and other Iowa media outlets carried the story, which helped set the stage for a new push for solutions.

I wrote a column that called for a gubernatorial candidate forum focused entirely on mental health. More details on that forum, which will be located at Des Moines University, will be announced Tuesday on DesMoinesRegister.com and in Wednesday’s newspaper.

Leadership is critical but so is the demand from Iowans that this issue become a top priority. As Susan Huppert said, it’s like the planets are aligning.